


The Good Friend

by GreenEyedCajun



Category: The Good Wife (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2813117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenEyedCajun/pseuds/GreenEyedCajun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alicia and Kalinda have no choice but to come face to face with the elephant in the room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [resistate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/resistate/gifts).



The wind was blowing fiercely through the streets of Chicago as the snow continued to fall for the 2nd night in a row. Alicia locked her car as she quickly walked to the elevator in the parking garage. There were only a few cars there. It was Christmas Eve and she knew better than to keep Zach and Grace's gifts in the house, so she kept them in her office. Zach was getting the leather jacket he had hinted about all season, and Grace would be getting a new laptop. It was going to be the three of them tonight, and Peter would come over in the morning for a short while then take the kids with him. Kids. Alicia really had a hard time letting go of that term. Zach and Grace were still her children, but far from kids. 

With all of the thinking, Alicia didn't realize the elevator had brought her to the floor of Florrick, Agos & Lockhart until the doors opened, shaking her of reminiscence. She walked out and down the hall towards her office. She stopped at the door and looked through the glass. When the office was busy and there was no time to think she could easily go in and out, but when it was silent like tonight, she has to find the strength inside of her to enter, knowing Will wouldn't be there to greet her on the other side of the threshold. Taking a breath she turned the door handle, opening it and walked through. Each time felt like a success, and each time hurt just a little less.

Alicia went over to her filing cabinet and opened the drawer labeled Miscellaneous. She took out both of the gifts and laid them on her desk before closing the drawer. They were already wrapped adorned with bows and each with a candy cane. It was a tradition she started on her and Peter's first Christmas together. This was the first year she had used a professional to gift wrap and though it was beautiful it felt a little impersonal. Alicia was that housewife in their old neighborhood Highland Park that baked cookies and was up late wrapping presents. She bit her bottom lip thinking back to Zach's first Christmas. She had to wake up early Christmas day because Peter had come home the night before saying he wanted to unwrap her. Alicia shook her head coming out of the day dream. Why on earth would she think of that? 

Grabbing the gifts and locking up her office, Alicia returned to the elevator and hit the button. Having never moved, the doors opened automatically and she walked through and pressed for the parking garage. She was calculating the time she'd get home in this weather as it began to close. 

“Hold the elevator!” a voice said.

Suddenly Alicia's attitude hardened. She hesitated and for a split second almost let the door close before hitting the sensor to keep it open, cursing herself as she did. She heard the sounds of the high-heeled boots click-clacking quickly down the hall.

“Thank...you...” she said upon entering and seeing Alicia.

Alicia just nodded with a slight smile. It was only a 30 second trip but she had done what she felt was a good job at avoiding Kalinda that past few years. They worked together but that didn't mean they had to see one another.

“All ready for Christmas?” Kalinda asked. The tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Once again she nodded. “Yes.” looking as the numbers on the screen went down. 

5...4...3...2. The elevator stopped with a harsh jolt, causing both Alicia and Kalinda to grab the walls.  
They looked at each other for a moment then Alicia went and pressed the button again.  
Nothing.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me right now!” she said with a mix of anger and annoyance in her voice as she began to press the button over and over.

“It doesn't matter how many times you press it, it wont begin moving again.” Kalinda said as she watched her.

Alicia looked back at her. “And what do you suppose I do?”

“See the little door at the bottom of the panel? Open it and there is an emergency telephone that will connect you to have a repairman come out here to fix it.”

Christmas Eve stuck in the elevator with Kalinda, the woman she couldn't make eye contact waiting for who knows how long for a repairman to come out. A repairman on Christmas Eve, she had better chances of Santa Claus shimming his fat ass down the elevator shaft to get them.

Alicia opened the door and picked up the receiver hitting the emergency button. She was connected to a dispatcher who said it would be about an hour because of the snow. She hung up the phone with a bit of force then grabbed her cellphone. There was no service.

“Damn it. Christmas Eve with practically a blizzard outside and I am stuck in an elevator with..” Alicia stopped herself.

“I mean...”

Kalinda looked at her “Go on and finish...with the woman who slept with you husband.”

Alicia looked back at her. “I thought we agreed to never bring that up again.”

“You did, Alicia..and since we are -”

“Don't even start, Kalinda. I mean it. Back then I may have let people walk all over me and been taken advantage but I have been through a lot of shit since then and I am more of a bitch than you would like to deal with in this small space.”

Kalinda said nothing. She and everyone who worked for the firm had seen how much Alicia had hardened, mostly as a result of Will's death. She sat down on the floor of the elevator and leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

Alicia took the opposite end. This felt like a moment in high school only it wasn't. You don't forgive someone for sleeping with your husband. You do not. She looked at her phone to avoid anymore awkwardness but the elephant in the room was so large. She wanted answers but she didn't want to hear them.

Twenty very long minutes passed and she was still deciding how to bring up the topic and whether or not she was ready to discuss it. Deep down she knew she needed to swallow her pride but it was easier to hold a grudge. She was stabbed in the back by someone she trusted.

“You worked for Peter for three years until he fired you. When we sat together at the bar you asked me how could I have stood by him. You said if it were you you would have stuck a knife in his heart.” Alicia began, looking over at her when she had finished speaking. This was her way of asking.

“Yes.” Kalinda began “...and me opinion hasn't changed. Yes I knew about you, yes I knew it was wrong and yes I still did it. I did not sleep with him because he gave me a sob story of his home life or to get a raise of some sort.”

“Then why, Kalinda? Why would you give yourself to a married man and then try to befriend his wife, having her open up to you about her life as if it never happened? I let you into my life, into my children's lives. I told you things I have never told anyone, ever. After the scandal happened I looked around and realized I had no friends left, and then you walked into my life. You became my friend or so I was led to believe with the tequila shots, giving me your phone number and your ridiculous ways of handling clients when we were on the job together. Was this just some sick way to clear your conscience?”

Kalinda stayed silent for a moment, the words stung but it was better that things were finally out in the open. Maybe now Alicia wouldn't see her as such a horrible person.  
“We both know that when it comes to my job I handle it and myself more liberally than you do. It is not something I am proud of but it gets the answers that I need when dealing with politics.” she looked over at Alicia who was watching her. At least she had her attention.  
“My job working with Peter was just like any other job I have now. The people I work for need answers and I get them. Glenn Childs' was trying to sabotage Peter and there was mention that your husband was working with a group that I am not at liberty to discuss for security reasons. Back then though, I was there for 3 years working and trying to get what my bosses needed in order to move forward. None of the tactics I tried worked, and all I managed to do was keep a good cover of the hard working, Indian girl who wanted to work her way up the political ladder. I was about to get fired if I didn't get anything and I took desperate measures. It worked. It was then that I learned the quickest way to get the job done.”

“So my husband got to screw you and you got to be the snitch who kept her job?” Alicia responded coldly.

“I got fired from my job and your husband was cleared. He was innocent. Had I not found out he would be in prison for life, Alicia. Would you rather he be rotting in prison as an innocent man? I know this doesn't excuse what I did, or what he did. But I wanted to be able to explain myself regardless of what you thought of me. I don't blame you for hating me. I am not the victim in any of this and I have never acted like one. I told you when I went to visit him in prison it dealt with Childs and only that. You have my word.”  
She was waiting for the tension to ease now that she spoke her side, but it still lingered.

“Your word is shot to hell, Kalinda. You have too many secrets that makes it impossible to trust you. After you told me you visited Peter and I began to accuse you of being with him you stopped me before I had a chance to finish by saying it wasn't true. Why didn't you just come clean then and spare us both of lies and betrayal?” Alicia, the strong one, felt a lump in her throat but damn it if she allowed herself to come undone.

There was a sigh, one filled with helplessness and aggravation. “I am not going to go round and round in circles with you about this. It happened, and believe me with every fiber of my being I am sorry, but I can't undone it! It was to prove his innocence. No, that doesn't make it anymore right and I'm not justifying my actions.”

Alicia ran her fingers through her hair, scratching the top of her head as she went along. Everything was out in the open and now she had no excuse to hate Kalinda. Had it not been for her she and the children would have lost Peter and the scandal would have been even bigger than it was. Truth is, she has never known Kalinda to purposely hurt someone.

“I...” she sighed “..I forgive you. I'm still angry but I can find it some where to forgive you. It's easier to hate you but we both know there is no foundation for it. I know how you do your job and if it weren't for you the kids wouldn't have had their dad.”  
She shook her head remembering, the tone of her voice softening.  
“You even came through when we couldn't find Grace. You knew where to go, and what to do to bring her back home...”

“I look out for those that need looking out for. Alicia. It's not in my nature to talk, to open up to people. I keep to myself and have a select few I can trust. Right here, right now I am not hiding anything. You were one of those people in my life that I could trust, that I know I can still trust. When I gave you my new phone number that was my way of saying 'I want you in if you can handle the ups and downs and all the shit in between'. You were a true friend to me. Some of my favorite moments when you first arrived was at the bar do you remember?”

It was impossible for Alicia not to smile at the memory as she nodded her head. “A Stern-Lockhart tradition you called it.” she responded with a small laugh.

“Well it was, I just didn't tell you until after that shot of tequila that you were the one to begin it” Kalinda joined in on the laughter, causing Alicia to laugh a bit more.

She shook her head “You were the only one I knew, Kalinda, that would flip off someone in another car saying it was good for the soul.” 

Kalinda smiled proudly truing to ease the laughter “Well, it certainly worked didn't it? Some people..hell everyone in this city drives like assholes.”

Alicia laughed a bit more as the tension in the tiny space eased significantly. “Well from now on you're the one that's driving, I'll sit back and relax.”

As the laughter began to die down Kalinda tilted her head and looked at her.  
“Does this mean....”

She nodded “Yes. We have issues we need to work out, and some will take time but...I have missed working with you...and...and your friendship. I mean you called when...” Alicia bit her lip, she couldn't say his name.

Kalinda, acting out of character and took her hand. “I'm sorry I couldn't have been with you.”

With another nod she cleared her throat “Yeah..me too..”

Obviously needing to change subjects, she noticed the wrapped gifts. “Looks like someone is going to be getting something nice in the morning.”

Alicia looked down at the gifts and smiled “Yeah, Zach in his leather jacket and Grace gets that laptop she has been wanting. I kept them here because even at their age I don't trust them.” she said with a smile. “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

Kalinda shook her head “I don't have any. Holidays aren't really my thing.”

“Well I'm not standing for that, you're coming to my house tomorrow afternoon when the kids are gone and I'll open up a bottle of wine. We both need it.”

“Alicia, really you don't have to..”

She shook her head “Don't argue, Kalinda. Learn to accept.

After a moment a smile broke across her face. “Thank you, I accept.”

Twenty minutes later they heard a voice saying he was there to release the elevator. Both of the women stood up and grabbed their belonging as they felt the it move. When the doors opened at the parking garage both walked out together.

“Merry Christmas, Kalinda.” Alicia told her.

Giving a genuine smile she responded. “Merry Christmas, Alicia.”


End file.
